ALLEGAN COUNTY -- If carp could laugh, they might have had a chuckle at
Shawn McKenney’s expense.

Overcast skies and a murkier-than-usual
Lake Allegan offered plenty of concealment for the invasive species
during the recent 2010 Annual Lake Allegan Carp Derby.

McKenney,
project manager for the Allegan Conservation District, waited patiently
for the nuisance fish to surface. They mocked him with splashes just
out of his bow’s 30-foot range.

As the 35-year-old Grand Rapids man
stood poised on his boat’s bow, his ex-wife called his cell. He
answered, and moments after he lowered his weapon, a carp offered its
greetings just a few feet from his face.

“Oh my God, there’s one
right in front of us!” he shouted. He scrambled for his 40 pound PSE
bow, but it was too late.

“Murphy’s Law right there,” McKenney mused.

It
was that kind of day. Armed with bows, spears and lines, about 70
participants hauled in around 1,000 carp after embarking from the Echo
Point boat launch. That’s roughly half the usual yield for the event,
which aims to curb the common carp population in the nearly 1,600-acre
lake.

McKenney managed to land only one fish over the course of
several hours. Others had more luck, but still struggled.

“Usually
you can just see them sitting out here, but today that’s not the case,”
he said.

Common carp, not to be confused with the Asian carp species
threatening Michigan fisheries, comprise a whopping 86 percent of the
lake’s fish population. They increase the water’s turbidity, or
muddiness, making it difficult for the native bass and bluegill to
breathe and find prey, McKenney said.

The bottom-feeders also stir up
the lake’s phosphorus content, leading to algae blooms and reduced
oxygen, McKenney said.

“We’re after these carp to improve water
quality in the lake,” he said. “They’re just completely overabundant.”

Dave Klingenberg, of Hamilton, netted awards
for both largest fish and largest number of fish. Of his 49 harvested,
two were 32 inches and 15 pounds.

McKenney’s daughter, 7-year-old
Erinn, isn’t old enough to bowfish, but still was eager to demonstrate
her skills.

“She gets to whack ’em with that hammer down there,”
McKenney said between puffs of a hand-rolled cigarette, pointing to a
large wooden mallet at the bottom of a recycling bin.

“I wanna whack
’em!” Erinn cried.

Dad assured his little girl that she’ll get her
own bow soon.

“Make it a pink bow!” she demanded.

While the
father-daughter team didn’t have much luck, other seasoned carp shooters
bucketed bigger grabs. Don Duncan, Jr., 47, and his son, Don Duncan
III, 27, both of Evart, landed about a dozen in a grassy pocket near the
shoreline.

“You gotta move real slow so you don’t stir it up,” said
the younger Duncan when asked about his strategy.

The carp are loaded
with polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs. They’re too toxic to be
chucked in a nearby wastebasket or Dumpster, McKenney said. They must be
disposed of at an area landfill, ruling out any number of exotic
cuisine possibilities.

Ongoing efforts, including sediment dredging,
aim to reduce PCB levels in a portion of the 166-mile Kalamazoo River
and Lake Allegan -- the river’s primary contaminant collector. Allegan,
Calhoun and Ottawa counties have adopted residential phosphorus
fertilizer bans within the last couple of years, with Kalamazoo possibly
on the verge, McKenney said.